Enzo Maresca had to watch the game from the stands, as he was suspended. He had made the switch of James Justin and Ricardo Pereira from right to left. Hamza Choudhury in midfield alongside Harry Winks and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
This is not the ideal set up as Hamza Choudhury becomes too defensive and Harry Winks showing his lack of penetration power, often not able to get the ball up and forward, and instead using the irritating backpass.
Tom Cannon started up front with Stephy Mavididi and Kasey McAteer on the flanks. It was probably the best set up, but again lacking the balance and composion we would like to see, hopefully Stefano Sensi will bring what is needed as he hopefully will be ready for the next game.
Leicester keeps a certain pressure from start and after 17 minutes a good chance appear. Ricardo pinches the ball in midfield and sprints down the left. He gets to the edge of the box then feeds Dewsbury-Hall. It’s bobbling, but he really should do better. The midfielder tries to pass it first time to Cannon unmarked, but gets it all wrong and it’s out for a goal kick. Leicester have another attempt after 25 minutes, but no goal.
Leicester scores after 31 minutes, 1-0. Davis sends it into his own net and City are ahead. It’s a well-crafted goal for City, even if an Ipswich player put it in. Winks threads it through and Mavididi and Ricardo play a one-two to get the winger into the box. He crosses into the six-yard box and while there are no City players there, Hladky gets a touch on it, which confuses Davis. The left-back, running back to his own goal, is helpless to bundle it into his own net.
Leicester looks in controll towards the end of the first half and Ipswich are kept on a good distance, it looks promising. with a lively Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall working hard to keep it all up.
Leicester comes out 2nd half with control, but again decides to play a lot of balls in their own penalty area and instead of going for the 2-0, everything becomes “stillwater”. Jannik Vestergaard and Mads Hermansen decides to play their “tricky inside penalty football”, which looks a total waste, when you in the next pass have to play that long ball without any controll, this cannot continue.
Leicester are in controll, and then surprisingly Enzo Maresca decides to put on offensive players, giving Yunus and Vardy minutes, but strangely not Coady or Nelson, as that could have given Leicester more power in defence, as the two coming on are offensive players, and it all gets a bit messy. This shows that Enzo Maresca does little or nothing to stop Ipswich from taking over, and as we reach the final whistle, Ipswich strikes after a miserable block from Mads Hermansen, leaving the ball in the open for Ipswich to score their equalizer.
The midfielders are all over and massive space are given Ipswich players just in front of the Leicester defenders, what on earth is going on. Marc Albrighton also gets minutes towards the end, but a fatal appraoch to the game, do see Ipswich getting the upper hand as Leicester again lose important points, but at least gets one in the bag, and the gap to Ipswich is the same, so all in all, not to depressed.
Leicester will play Birmingham at home in the FA Cup next, probably seeing a number of changes, maybe a debut to Stefano Sensi, and hopefully coming out with positives as this game can be forgotten.
Leicester is back in action in Championship on the 30th of January, playing Swansea at home. A game that hopefully will give 3 points.
- Positives
- Dewsbury-Hall working hard, being on his toes
- Scoring a goal after 31 minutes
- Negatives
- Enzo Maresca not able to do the correct decisions from the bench as subs looks totally wrong when trying to defend a lead in the final minutes of the game
- Structure crash as Leicester fails to keep their game up and in balance for 90 minutes
- Mads Hermansen please stop your messy passing, this has nothing to do with goalkeeping and looks very stupid and you are getting punished for your attitude, this has to end
- Throwing away points at the end of the game
Player Ratings: Hermansen 4, Pereira 5, Vestergaard 5, Faes 5, Justin 5, Choudhury 5, Winks 5, Dewsbury-Hall 6, Mavididi 5, McAteer 5, Cannon 5, Subs: Vardy, Yunus, Albrighton
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
Match Stats (H/A)
- Possession: 56 / 44
- Shots on Target: 8 / 3
- Corners: 8 / 8
- Fouls: 6 / 11
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